Whether you were aware or not, it’s now completely “legal” for a college sports athlete to get an “endorsement” deal.
Why that was “illegal” to begin with, I won’t debate. Often in life you will find other people making completely arbitrary decisions based on their own beliefs, for other people. Especially when it comes to other people making money from their talents. Arbitrary decisions are in our DNA.
It’s one reason I love this space so much – because so far, no ‘other person’ has quite figured out how to push their own arbitrary decisions on the rest of us.
That’s neither here nor there.
It’s now a fact, after some 100 plus years, that up and coming college athletes can make money from endorsements – and this in turn, leads to small business and NFTs.
Small Business and College sports
If you’re a booster of a college sports team in a small or large town, or even if you’re not, you can now offer opportunity – both for your business and the athlete, by offering an endorsement deal.
The deal I would recommend of course is – NFTs.
Let’s say you’re a small business in the screen printing business, and you want to release your own NFT. Why not, through an agent – or ‘their’ agent, get in touch with a college player of some sort. An up and coming star. And why not try to figure out a way to ‘sign’ that player to an endorsement NFT deal.
Maybe your NFT ‘unlocks’ – so that for every NFT bought or sold, the buyer gets a new T-shirt in the mail. Or an autographed photo. Or a ticket to a game. Or a meet and greet at the local restaurant that’s been struggling since COVID to re-establish itself in the community. There are still ‘rules’ to this, but they can be figured out and followed.
Marketing is all about thinking ‘out side the box’. And college sports, now that it’s legal to partner with college players, is a perfectly legitimate way to help build your brand, while at the same time, offer your customers something of value.
Can you imagine, as a customer, getting a Peyton Manning NFT – WHILE HE WAS IN COLLEGE? Do you know what that would be worth now?
What about a Tom Brady? No one even wanted to sign the greatest QB of all time to a deal. He went 199 in the draft! Can you imagine owning an ‘official’ Tom Brady NFT when he was in college – and what that would be worth?
It would be the equivalent (or more) of an authorized Babe Ruth baseball from the 1930’s.
Okay, NFTs didn’t exist then. BUT THEY DO NOW.
If your small business isn’t always striving to find value for your customer, what else are you doing?
NFTs are here. They are here to stay. They aren’t the ‘next big thing’. They are the NOW big thing.
Pairing your small business with an up and coming college sports professional couldn’t hurt! Sure, no one knew Brady would turn out to be the best ever. But taking a small ‘bet’ on a player like him would cost you peanuts. And it could turn out great! For you both.
Besides, every time the NFT sold you could reap a royalty for the sale – as could the athlete. It’s a win/win/win.
And it could also turn out that the local press, all the other boosters, the other business leaders, and the people of the community, see what you did in supporting someone and think, “yeah, that’s a place I’d like to take my business”.
NFTs are changing everything. NFTs are here to stay. NFTs are not the future, they are the now. But it takes time to put an NFT plan into place. The longer you wait, the further behind you will be. Get started, NOW!
As always, the NFT Creative Group is here to help and look forward to hearing from you: NFTCreativeGroup@gmail.com
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